Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 4 - 2nd ed.djvu/292

280 LETTER CXXXIII. . Monticello, January 9, 1816.

I acknowledge with pleasure your letter of the 9th of December last.

Your opinions on the events which have taken place in France, are entirely just, so far as these events are yet developed. But we have reason to suppose, that they have not reached their ulti- mate termination. There is still an awful void between the pres- ent, and what is to be the last chapter of that history ; and I fear it is to be filled with abominations, as frightful as those which have already disgraced it. That nation is too high-minded, has too much innate force, intelligence, and elasticity, to remain quiet under its present compression. Samson will arise in his strength, and probably wih ere long burst asunder the cords and the webs of the Philistines. But what are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and how widely they may spread between the brethren of one family, our ignorance of the interior feuds and antipathies of the cQuntry places beyond our view. Whatever may be the convulsions, we cannot but indulge the pleasing hope, they will end in the permanent establishment of a representative govern- ment ; a government in which the will of the people will be an effective ingredient. This important element has taken root in the European mind, and will have its growth. Their rulers, sen- sible of this, are already offering this modification of their govern- ments, under the plausible pretence that it is a voluntary conces- sion on their part. Had Bonaparte used his legitimate power honestly, for the establishment and support of a free government, France would now have been in prosperity and rest, and her ex- ample operating for the benefit of mankind, every nation in Eu- rope would eventually have founded a government ov^er which the will of the people would have had a powerful control. His improper conduct, however, has checked the salutary progress of principle ; but the object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they will press to its accomplishment, and to the general amelioration of the con- dition of man. What a germ have the freemen of the United States planted, and how faithfully should they cherish the parent